Writing

20/20 – Day 12: 20 escapes from essay writer’s block

A poem:

Blank mind, blank screen, all is clear.
Scared to start and full of fear.
Not quite sure where to begin,
Nothing grand inspires within.
Vicious circles loop the loop,
“How can all my thoughts regroup?”
Take a look below and see
If these ideas can set you free.

  1. Free writing. Let all sorts out. At least you’ll be writing. Wikipedia has the rules.
  2. Compose without editing as you go. Similar to free writing, but not quite so relaxed.  For when your main problem lies mainly with perfectionism.  Leave that issue for later.
  3. Mix it up. Start at the end if you like.  Start wherever you want. Writing doesn’t have to be a linear process.  If you prefer to conclude before anything else, that’s okay with the world.
  4. Sum up what you want to argue/explain in a few sentences and work from that. Armed with your own overview, you’ve got more to go on.
  5. Use headings and notes as a core structure. Don’t know where to start? Take the information you already have and create a plan that way.
  6. Find quotations to work from.  You quote throughout an essay to back up, give examples, and engage.  Turn things on their head by using quotations as a way to start the writing process.
  7. Agree to craft just one sentence before walking away.
  8. Now agree to just one paragraph before walking away.
  9. Now agree to just one section before walking away. Little steps become bigger with confidence.
  10. Do/Don’t listen to music as you write.  Do the thing you normally wouldn’t do.
  11. Create a list of points instead of writing in full paragraphs. Challenge yourself to making 50 points. If you only end up with six points, who cares? You’ve made six points! Woo!
  12. Go for a walk and think about the essay as you survey the world.  To be sure you remember the good stuff, take a notepad and pen.  Don’t note stuff down on your phone/Blackberry.  Make this special, make this separate from everything else.
  13. Get rid of distractions.  Stay focused and don’t let anything get in your way.  That goes for distractions on screen too.  Try DarkCopy or Writer for getting rid of distractions while writing.
  14. Deconstruct the essay question.  The question is never as simple as you first imagine.
  15. Eat, drink, be merry. Is your gut holding you back?  Don’t go hungry or thirsty.  You’ll be most productive when you’ve satisfied your appetite.  But don’t eat too much or you’ll be annoyed by indigestion instead.
  16. Stop calling it a block.  If you treat any lack of writing as a block, you’ll feel more blocked.  It’s an opportunity to shine, not a block.
  17. Take relevant lecture notes, write them out again and work around them.
  18. Find dictionary terms for words mentioned. Look for inspiration through the definitions.  If that’s not enough, look the words up in a thesaurus too and see where else you can head.
  19. Change medium and/or location.  Handwritten essays can be typed up.  Try writing the old fashioned way.  And why always work in your room or in the library?  Use a bench on campus, a different computer room than your usual norm, anywhere that’s different.
  20. Refer to your essay as a ‘draft’. Your final version is where you think about the exact structure and ultimate arguments.  Don’t be so formal with a draft. Let rip!
Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)

20/20 – Day 10: 20 pushes to get you working

Difficulty in starting a project doesn’t have to be down to procrastination.  A number of factors can buzz around, disrupting your efforts.  You may not even know what’s causing the problem.

If you’re serious about starting, or at least want a nudge in the right direction, here are 20 possible solutions for you.

  1. Start straight away. Important, yet rarely used.  The best way to deal with any work is to start soon after you’re given the task.  You needn’t do loads, just get started.
  2. Small chunks. Part of the brilliance with starting straight away is that you don’t have to spend hours in one go.  20 minutes here, half an hour there…in the first few days you’ll be a lot closer without breaking into a sweat.
  3. Stop treating coursework negatively. It’s easy to feel trapped in essay hell when rushing to complete work, especially when looming close to the deadline.  A negative attitude toward the work will simply make you feel worse.  Fine, given the choice you won’t always jump at essay work over everything else, but when a job’s got to be done, you’ll find it more difficult when you’re downhearted about it.
  4. Study buddies. Some people swear by the power of working with others.  They don’t have to be on your course and they don’t have to be in your year.  It may help for some study, but the main draw here is to get together in a group so you can spur each other on to work.
  5. Write casual. Treat writing like a personal blog post, diary entry, Facebook message, or conversation.  Switching to scholarly gear isn’t an instant process.  Get rid of the problem by going casual.
  6. Use different materials and stick with what makes you happy.  If you hate staring at a blank screen on the computer, get a pen and pad.  If the software proves too distracting, try a minimal interface.
  7. Procrastinate AFTER you start, not before.  Procrastination before you know where you want to go with an essay makes the job harder.  Procrastination when you’re half way through the process is not so bad.
    Anyway, a bit of a pause can be a good thing.
  8. Write drunk, edit sober.  Whether or not you take this advice literally, the point drives home the need to write without fear.  Don’t clear up as you go along, especially if that means obsessing over the exact words and ending up writing nothing at all.  When you’ve written the detail, you’re in a better place to mould it suitably.  Set aside separate time for the editing process.
  9. Take inspiration from unlikely sources.  This depends on the subject, but some lend themselves to this exercise.  An unlikely source doesn’t have to be weird, just away from a regular starting point.  For instance, your lectures are separate entities, but they overlap in terms of content, reference, people, and so on.  Therefore, a generally unrelated lecture may still hold a cue to set you thinking.
    Alternatively, a news story or a YouTube video could provide you with an idea.  Be on the lookout for anything that draws you back to the essay you’re working on.  Anything is possible.
  10. Work somewhere else.  The simple process of leaving one situation and engaging with another is often enough to give you renewed vigour.
  11. Do something daring. Changed perspective and a sense of the unknown help bring clarity to your thoughts.  Step out of your comfort zone and do something you wouldn’t normally. A bit over the top, you might think, but it can feel so, so good!
  12. Don’t offer yourself rewards for work. Just make it rewarding! You should be studying this for a reason.  If it’s that dull, pick a different theme/title.
  13. Find inspiration from quotations.  I’m not talking about self-help nuggets.  I’m referring to quoting others in essays.  When you find a killer quotation, write around that.  Shape the essay around the quotation, rather than shaping the quotation into the essay.
  14. Use your past work as inspiration. I don’t mean you should plagiarise, but you should look back to relevant coursework and refer to key points and major areas in order base your new work.
  15. Go for a walk/run. A very common piece of advice (regularly offered by myself among many others).  Alas, it’s advice commonly ignored.  It works so well, you should at least give it a chance.
  16. Change the lighting.  This is a weird one, but it works wonders.  If the main light in your room is on, turn it off and use a desk lamp instead.  If it’s the middle of the day and your curtains are open, see what happens when you close them and have a bit of artificial light.  Changes in the light do all sorts to your attitude, mood, outlook, and focus.
  17. Use a timer. Race yourself.  Just ten minutes can help.  Force yourself to work until the alarm goes off.  A bit of pressure can go a long way.
  18. Ask the tutor for an interesting reference/starting point.  They’re not going to tell you how to write your essay.  Neither will they hold your hand and give you a killer introduction.  However, they should be willing to discuss where you’re looking to take ideas and suggest key areas to explore based on those ideas.
  19. Brainstorm and mindmap. Go crazy…Write lists, make charts, draw pictures, you name it!  Pick key concepts, search a bit deeper, and attempt to shape a rough outline.  I often do this when preparing anything, not just coursework.
  20. Don’t research. Write blind. See how you do and put the research in after you’ve had a go.  Research can bog you down, so write what you think it best first.  Even if you scrap it all later on, it’s the fact that you’ve actually given the topic thought that helps drive you further.

Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: Retrofuturs (cc)

20/20 – Day 2: 20 ways to find your own voice

“I am not saying that I have completely found my voice. I see it more as a journey. We are all on the same path. Some of us are further along than others. The important factor is to be consistent and keep writing. You will run into frustrations for the rest of your life, so keep your eyes on the long-term.” – Henri Junttila writing on kikolani.com

For all the help out there, most advice is on the right way of doing something, or the best way of succeeding.  But that help can also bog you down so you stop listening to yourself.

For instance, these 20 lists of 20 that I’m writing will not be to the liking of some writers who dislike list articles and suggest it’s not a good way forward.

But if I had listened to that advice, I wouldn’t be publishing 20 blog posts and I’d miss out on offering some of this advice.  On the other hand, if I listened to that advice, I’d then be ignoring the people who heartily encourage list articles.

Advice is something you can choose to listen to or ignore.  It’s advice, not an order.  Take in the advice you want, stir it all up, add your own ideas, and do what makes you feel comfortable.  Here are some ways to go about finding the magic:

  1. Stop caring about others. They don’t matter when you’re searching for what makes you tick.
  2. Don’t try to emulate someone else. It’s a trap. You want to catch a style that you like, which means you stop developing your own style.
  3. Enjoy the process. It’s not meant to be a chore. The search is meant to create excitement and give you all sorts of positivity for the future.
  4. Experiment. Take chances, be playful. If you don’t, you can’t surprise yourself and you’ll get nowhere.
  5. If feasible, publish your output in a blog or similar. Public output helps focus what you’re doing. It doesn’t always work, but it can be the kick you need.
  6. Don’t expect anything. You won’t know what to expect until you find it. It can take years before you’re satisfied that your own voice can be heard.  I’m sure many never find it.  At least you’re looking, which is a major start. Just let the process grow organically.
  7. Stop taking it personally. You are you. That’s a good thing.
  8. Don’t hide behind a front. No matter how comfortable you feel putting on a front, it’s still not you.  If you’re serious about finding the true you, throw the fake attitude away.  The moment you hide is the moment you’ll stop being heard at your best.
  9. Devour more from other people.  How does it make you feel? You can only develop a unique voice when you listen to other voices.
  10. Keep going. Persevere.
  11. Acknowledge that even original work may not be your true voice. There’s a difference between you being you and you being original.  If all you crave is originality, you don’t need to take such a wild journey.
  12. Write on different topics. Who knows what you’ll stumble upon?
  13. Use different styles. Same reason as above.
  14. Be prepared to throw away a lot of material. Whether you write, paint, or sculpt, you’re on a learning curve.  That said, you don’t need to actually throw stuff away.  A lot of it will probably be useful even if it’s not ‘your voice‘!
  15. Ask “What do I want to use my voice for?”
  16. Finding your voice is about more than confident writing, success and original output.  You can find success and create amazing works without catching the intensely personal spark of ‘voice’. ‘Voice’ is an ambiguous term, so be careful to know what you want here.  Do you crave something more personal? Like, really crave it? If that’s not the point, you might as well focus on more important things.
  17. Don’t stop searching until you’re totally satisfied. For some, it means finding what works and striving to give it even more clarity and zest.
  18. Don’t stop once you are satisfied. You’ve found what works, you’ve developed to a tee, now there’s nothing more to do, right?  Wrong. There’s always something to do. If you drop your guard and work to old standards, you’re working to formula.  At some point in time, you’ll be pushing out content that you don’t even believe in and you won’t even notice. Unless you don’t care at that stage, stay on your toes.
  19. Don’t feel constrained.  If you only need to make 19 points, don’t feel the need to make 20.
  20. Meh.

Okay, I’ll give you a Point 20. Because I want to:

  • Don’t listen to any of the advice I’ve given above. Finding your own voice is your job. You may find it when you least expect it, with the help of nobody but yourself. Happy searching!

Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: original by G|o®g|O (cc)

26 Sharp Essay Tips

Essays.  You can’t get away from them.  And even if you’re up for the challenge, that doesn’t make the writing process less stressful.

Whatever happens in a single essay, don’t be distracted or downhearted.  I remember handing in an essay that I was proud of, yet it barely scraped a pass.  I was gutted.  In the same semester, I couldn’t get my head round a particular essay and handed in what I thought was mediocre work…but my tutor didn’t see it that way and gave me an amazing grade.

No wonder the essay experience is a stressful one!

While I can’t take away that stress, I do have 26 tips below to reduce some of the uncertainty.  They’ll point you in the right direction when it comes to making the grade.  It’s not exhaustive, but when it comes to essays, nothing is!  If you have any killer tips that you can’t live without, let us know.  We like advice.  Advice is good!

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